Are Terrorists Able To Legally Buy Firearms in US?

That's exactly what New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg is claiming:

While the suspects in the Fort Dix case had purchased guns on the black market, Lautenberg noted: "Known and suspected terrorists don't have to use the black market. They can go into a gun store and buy a gun."

Lautenberg said background checks conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives do not currently include a check of the FBI's terrorism watch list -- an omission he called "preposterous." Lautenberg is sponsoring a bill to require the checking of that list for the names of would-be gun purchasers.

"Common sense tells us that we should not let known or suspected terrorists buy a gun," Lautenberg said.

He was joined at the news conference outside Fort Dix by Rep. Jim Saxton (R-3rd Dist.), whose district includes the Army base. Saxton plans to introduce legislation to require background checks and ID cards for vendors -- including pizza delivery drivers -- who do business on U.S. military bases.

Common sense would suggest that they should never be allowed to get firearms, but who says that laws are enacted that make sense.

Background checks and ID cards for vendors entering US bases may improve security only marginally. Until the store clerk at Circuit City came across the DVD, the Fort Dix Six weren't even on the law enforcement radar, so these changes would not have made a difference. If a cell is operating inside the US and no one is aware of its existence, such individuals could still enter the bases even with the requirement for background checks since no flags would have been raised.

Meanwhile, the NICS website provides a list of classes of individuals prohibited from obtaining firearms as a result of the background check:

1) Persons who are aliens and are illegally or unlawfully in the United States
2) Persons who have renounced their U.S. Citizenship
3) Persons who have been adjudicated as a mental defective or have been committed to a mental institution
4) Persons who have been discharged from the armed forces under dishonorable discharge conditions
5) Persons who are unlawful users of or addicted to any controlled substance

At least three of the members of the Fort Dix Six would have been prohibited under provision one since the Duka brothers were illegal aliens and not in the United States legally. Other members who were in the US as legal residents could have obtained the weapons, and as noted above, since they were not on any terrorist watchlist, they could have obtained the weapons had an alert Circuit City employee not found the disturbing images on a video and alerted the authorities.

However, once the authorities were alerted to the existence of this group, there should be a method in place to prohibit them from obtaining firearms legally.

This terror cell was broken because of a eagle-eyed electronics store clerk, and for that we should be thankful. Eliminating loopholes sounds like a good idea, but it will not solve the problem of identifying those that belong on terror watch lists in the first place.